Google Hotel Pack Results

Hotel Packs are one of the SERP Features that Google provides to enhance user experience. Rank Ranger tracks the appearance of hotel packs in search results if you enable it in a campaign's search engine settings. In this document we provide instructions for search engine settings and an explanation of how rank is recorded based on the available options.

Please note that when you make Campaign Settings changes, the change will be reflected in the next day's rank tracking results.

What are Hotel Pack Results?

Google Hotel Pack results display the hotel name, along with a room rate, thumbnail image, rating, and select information such as amenities, reviews, etc. and display prices for hotels matching the search location on a map. Hotel Pack results are not organic search results and must be selected in Campaign
Settings if you want them included in rank reports.

Google Hotel Pack Example
Google does not provide a link to the hotel's website in their hotel pack, so our rank tracker is not able to match the hotel pack listing against the campaign domains. We are able to match business name, so we offer Custom Location & Options Search Engine settings where you can enter the Google My Business listing name and the hotel URL that you want displayed in our rank reports when our tracker finds a match.

More Hotel Information
Clicking any of the hotels, prices or the view more button, takes the user to a screen with more hotel listings and a map with prices

Google My Business Hotel Listing
Two clicks after the original search results, users can reach the hotel's business listing that provides the information that Google has for the hotel, and this is where one might find a website link button.

Rank: Hotel Pack Results Included vs. Excluded

Including Hotel Pack Results in your Campaign Search Engine settings
instructs RangerBot to track and count these non-organic results along with the organic rank results. As illustrated in the example below, the green numbers represent inclusion of the Hotel Pack Results and the red numbers display regular Organic SERPs.

When the Include if Ranked option is selected in the Business Results settings:

if the business name is found in the Hotel or Local Pack), then rank tracking records the keyword's rank in the Hotel or Local Pack.

if the primary domain is not found in the Hotel or Local Pack, then the pack is ignored and Organic rank is reported as shown in the following illustration.

Hotel Pack Report Examples

Dashboard Report with Business Results Indicator

Illustrated in this Rank Tracker Dashboard report we display a business results icon indicating that keyword ranked in a Hotel or Local Pack. Click the screen icon to view a SERP Snapshot of the actual search engine results as tracked.

Hotel Pack in SERP Snapshot with Google My Business Results Excluded
When the Business Results setting is not enabled in the search engine settings, then if a hotel pack displayed in the search results for a tracked keyword, the SERP Snapshot displays the hotel pack to the right of the organic results, however, if the hotel being tracked in the campaign ranked in the hotel pack that appearance is not reflected in the organic rank results.

Hotel Pack in SERP Snapshot with Google My Business Results Included as Organic
When the Business Results are enabled in the search engine settings, and the tracked business ranks in a hotel pack, then the SERP Snapshot displays the Hotel Pack on the right and includes the business listings in the organic results. In this example, we see that the Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa ranked in position 1 of the Hotel Pack. Scrolling down we see that the website ranked in position 7 for the keyword. Since the search engine setting for this campaign was set to include the business results, the Rank Dashboard report lists the rank for "san diego resorts" as position 1.

Business Results Settings
To achieve the above report data, we used these search engine settings

How to Set Business Results Tracking

Access the Campaign Search Engine Settings:

In the Home > Campaigns screen, locate the campaign for which you want to view local search results

Custom Location Settings

Custom Location Settings: the search engine country has already been selected, you can target the location further by entering a state, city or postal code in any of these formats:

California: this narrows a USA search to the state of California

Miami, FL: this narrows a USA search to the city of Miami, Florida

90210, USA: this narrows a USA search to a postal code within a city (in the US, it is necessary to add a comma after the postal code and include USA)

London: this targets a UK search to the city of London

WC1N: this targets a UK search to a specific postal code

Click the Save button when you have finished customizing the search engine.

Business Results Settings

Default Setting
The default search engine setting for Business Results is that they are excluded from rank tracking.

Option 1: Select Exclude from organic rank count if you don't want this campaign to report local pack or hotel pack in the Rank reports

Option 2: Select Exclude from organic rank count AND enter the Google My Business page name in the Business Name field if you want the business name tracked and reported in the SEO > Rank Insights report - Local screen

Option 3: Enter the Google My Business page name in the Business Name field, and select the Include in organic rank count option if you want the local pack or hotel pack position considered as part of organic rank in the Rank reports,

Select the Include if Ranked option if you don't want the local pack or hotel pack included in organic rank when your business isn't found in the pack

If you choose Option 2 or 3 to enable Google My Business listing results reporting, then follow these instructions to enable tracking.

Business Results Match

Select Exclude from organic rank count or Include in organic rank count based on whether or not you want local or hotel pack positions counted in organic rank (as described in the section above)

If Include in organic rank count is selected, and you only want the local pack or hotel pack positions considered in organic rank only when the Business Name is matched in the pack, check the Include if Ranked option.

In the Business Name field enter the Google My Business listing Title
The Business Name must be the exact Title that displays in the Google listing for the business location.Refer to sections below for wild card options to accommodate Google business listings for multiple locations or business names.

Business with Multiple Location Listings
If the tracked domain has multiple Google business listings containing the same Business Name with location or service included in the title, use the (contains) option.

For example, by entering (Capital Grille), Ranger bot will return Local Results for "The Capital Grille", "Capital Grille Wall Street", "The Capital Grille of New Orleans", etc.

Company with Multiple Business Name Listings
If the Google Business Titles don't contain a common brand name, you can enter multiple business names in parentheses with a pipe between them.

For example, the Hilton Hotel in San Diego has a sports grill, lounge, and restaurant, so to track the Google Business page for each of the related properties, you could enter this in the Business Name field:(Hilton San Diego Bayfront)|(Fox Sports Grill)|(Odysea Lounge)|(Vela)

Business Page URL (optional)
If the Google business listing has been optimized for a URL that is different than the campaign primary URL, you may enter that URL in this field and we will use it as the landing page in your reports.

For example, if the website link on the Google My Business listing for a restaurant directs users to the reservations page, or a menu, or gallery of mouth-watering photos, you can enter that URL in this field.

If the field is left empty, then the campaign domain URL will display in reports if the keyword ranks in Local Finder for the business name.

In the above example, the search engine has been customized:

For search in Boston, Massachusetts

To include local pack and hotel pack results if the Google My Business listing title is "The Capital Grille"

To include the rank count along with organic results rank if the Google Business listing name is in the search results

To list a specific landing page URL in the rank reports when the Google My Business name is found in Boston based search results

Click the Save button when you have finished customizing the search engine.